BBC's Jeremy Vine hits back in Waitrose truck row as petition to have him sacked tops 10,000 signatures

A petition calling for broadcaster Jeremy Vine to be sacked from the BBC after he claimed a cyclist had been ‘close-passed’ by an HGV on a busy London street has sailed past 10,000 signatures.

The TV presenter and radio DJ posted footage on Twitter of an incident that occurred while he was involved in a cycle ride with Metropolitan police officers.

Vine was filming the ride using a helmet-mounted camera and it captured the moment when a Waitrose lorry passed a fellow cyclist, but he claimed that the “massive truck” had driven too close, despite the vehicle remaining safely within its lane.

Close-passing is classed as careless driving and the offence can result in six licence points and a £100 fine.

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The Highway Code states that “as a guide” motorists should leave at least 1.5m when overtaking a cyclist at speeds of up to 30mph.

The 57-year-old’s Twitter feed was deluged with comments pointing out that the driver had done nothing wrong and that the lorry was not overtaking the cyclist as he remained within his own lane at all times.

Waitrose has also stood by its employee and told motortransport.co.uk that it was confident its professional driver had used the correct positioning while driving on a narrow lane.

However, Vine stood by his accusation, telling some of his critics on Twitter to take refresher courses or to cut up their driving licence with a pair of scissors.

A Change.org petition demanding that Vine be removed from his BBC work for promoting unfair accusations has now reached 10,551 signatures.